NEWSFLASH: Prof. Velez Martinez will participate in a post-hearing discussion of immigrant women in Puerto Rico today at 4 p.m. as part of Human Rights and Puerto Rico, sponsored by the American University Washington College of Law Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law. Watch the webcast live here.

Pitt Law Clinical Assistant Professor Sheila I. Velez Martinez today appeared before the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women for the Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Tracy Robinson, as part of a series of public hearings before the commission taking place March 13-27 in Washington, D.C. (Live webcasts of the hearings and video recordings of past hearings are available here.) Robinson noted the presence of Velez Martinez and welcomed and thanked the University of Pittsburgh School of Law for its assistance in bringing to the attention of the IACHR the plight of immigrant women in Puerto Rico. Kyle Webster, a 3L and a student in the Pitt Law Immigration Law Clinic, was also in attendance. Velez Martinez spoke before the Rapporteur as part of panel of women in the fields of academia and nongovernmental organizations on women’s issues in Puerto Rico.

Today at 4 p.m. EDT, Velez Martinez will participate in a follow-up discussion of the rights of immigrants, specifically immigrant women, in Puerto Rico as part of Human Rights in Puerto Rico, an event sponsored by the American University Washington College of Law Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law that will feature leading activists, academics, and representatives of civil society organizations, who are in D.C. for the hearings. Representatives from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and from the Office of the Resident Commissioner have also been invited to participate, and topics to be discussed include women's rights, children's rights, LGBTI rights, migrants' rights, and the death penalty in Puerto Rico.